Helicopter saves BMX explorer trapped in gorse

A 32-year-old man was winched to safety by RAF helicopter yesterday after being trapped all night on a clifftop in the middle of 10ft-high gorse bushes.

Dean Bowen, of Filey, North Yorks, said he was on his mountain bike when he became stranded as he hunted for an old BMX cycle track he had used as a child.

Mr Bowen, unemployed, said he decided to go for a ride after losing £100 on gaming machines at the nearby Primrose Valley caravan site. He saw some thick undergrowth and started exploring.

"Before I knew it, it turned into the worst kind of brambles you could imagine," he said. "There was a fence and a bit of water and I thought I would go and see if the BMX track was still there. Before I knew it, I was in an Action Man jungle.

"When I first went in I was ankle deep in clear water. Then I was ankle deep in sloppy mud. The gorse was the most painful stuff to squeeze through."

Mr Bowen, who was wearing jeans and a hooded top, said at first that he had spent two days in the gorse but later thought it was more like seven hours. His bicycle has not been found.

He eventually attracted attention by waving his cigarette lighter as a woman walked along a coastal path shortly before dawn.

Coastguards, the police, fire and ambulance services were called in but could not find him as they struggled through the razor-sharp undergrowth.

A Sea King helicopter was scrambled at first light from nearby RAF Leconfield and the crew saw a hand sticking out of a space in the gorse.

Flt Sgt Colin Yorke was winched down and found Mr Bowen crouched on a gorse branch several feet from the ground. Both were then hoisted 40ft into the Sea King.

Mr Bowen told his rescuers: "All I can remember is going out on Saturday night, coming home and going out again in the early hours on Sunday."

He was taken to Scarborough Hospital with mild hypothermia, dehydration and lacerations then allowed to leave.

Flt Sgt Yorke, 38, who has been in the RAF for 21 years, said: "It was certainly one of our stranger rescues.

"We have no idea how he got there. He was right in the middle of the gorse. It was as if he had been dropped there by a spaceship.

"When we arrived we could just see this hand poking out above the top of the gorse. Luckily there was a small space in the bushes, so I could be winched down and get him out."

Flt Lt John Ewer, the helicopter co-pilot, said: "This guy was very lucky. He hadn't fallen into the gorse; it looked as though he had walked into the middle. It is not the sort of thing we regularly get called to."